EASTON, Pa. - Saying it was the most heinous case she's seen in two decades on the bench, a judge sentenced a former Warren County schoolteacher today to 15 to 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting one of her female students at the teacher's Pennsylvania home.

Keri Ann Brekne

After listening to the victim and her parents describe how Keri Ann Brekne systematically gained the trust of the then-14-year-old student before molesting her between July 2007 and January 2008, Northampton County, Pa., Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden sentenced the ousted Lopatcong Township Middle School teacher to three to six years on each of five aggravated indecent assault charges.

"You," the judge told Brekne, "are dangerous."

The victim, now 15, delivered an emotional 20-minute statement in which she stood just a few feet from the teacher who sexually assaulted her.

She described how Brekne, 28, showered her with gifts and treats and told her she was special. She said that what started out as a friendship with a teacher seen by students as cool became an obsession for Brekne and later involved unwanted kissing and touching.

The teacher discouraged her from liking boys or hanging out with her friends, told the student she "owned" her and helped the girl sneak out of her Lopatcong home in the middle of the night.

After the girl's parents made her turn in her cell phone at the end of each day, the teacher bought her a "secret cell phone" so she could text the girl late into the night.

Charges were filed after the girl's parents found lurid text messages from Brekne on the secret cell phone and the girl told police the teacher transported her across state lines to participate in sexual acts that progressed from kissing and touching to oral sex, digital penetration and tying and blindfolding the girl in bed at the teacher's Bethlehem, Pa., home, authorities said.

The girl said she was on suicide watch and that the teacher stole her childhood.

"I will never be the same," she said.

Brekne, who grew up in Middlesex County, apologized to the girl, the girl's family and her own family.

Addressing the victim, she told her she had such hopes and dreams and "I did something to shatter that all."

Brekne awaits sentencing in New Jersey for a sexual assault that took place at the girl's home.